NAMIBIA HAS MADE GREAT STRIDES IN DEVELOPING RENEWABLE ENERGY, SAYS SADC

WINDHOEK-- Namibia has made great strides in the deployment of renewable energy and renewable efficiencies, says the Executive Director of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE), Kudakwashe Ndhlukula.

He told the media at the SADC Secretariat here Sunday that Namibia's adoption of its Renewable Energy Policy in 2017 put the country ahead of other SADC member states in this regard, despite their huge potential in solar, wind, biomass and hydro energy.

The policy provides guidance to the Namibian government on how to develop the renewable energy sector. It will also scale up the contribution of power from renewable sources in the country's electricity-generation mix while aiming to enable access to modern, clean and affordable energy services for all Namibians.

"There is quite a significant opportunity for serving the people that we have, but awareness is lacking in the [renewable energy] industry," said Ndhlukula, who added that capacity to develop, manage and govern systems which include renewable energy efficiency capacities was also limited.

He indicated that more than 60 per cent of populations in the sub-region were living in rural areas and access to clean and affordable energy services was very low in those areas, and therefore innovation was needed to include everybody.

"This is an issue that we really need to look at seriously by bringing in renewable energy and energy efficiency to contribute towards this issue," he stated.